Breast milk or baby formula will be your baby’s main source of nutrition for the first year. By the age of six months at the latest, all children also need solid food in addition to breast milk or formula. At the maternity and child health clinic, we will tell you in more detail when your baby is ready to start tasting solid foods.
How to start tasting
Offer your baby breast milk or formula before the tasting session so that the food offered does not substitute the milk.
At first, you can hold the baby in your arms. Start by offering them vegetables, berries and fruits in a suitable form, such as puree, from one to two teaspoons at a time. From the start, you can have the baby taste several flavours at a time and also increase the size of the tasting portions according to the child’s appetite.
When the baby learns to sit unaided, they can move to a high chair to eat. At first, you can support the baby’s position with aids such as towel rolls.
You can include your baby in family meals from the very first tasting sessions.
When the baby has learned to eat
Make sure that your baby eats in the high chair in a good sitting position, with their feet firmly on the platform.
From the age of six months onwards, the baby will need a wide variety of foods from all different food groups: vegetables, berries, fruits, cereals and different proteins such as chicken, fish, eggs, beans, tofu or soy. You can start offering dairy products such as yoghurt, curd and cottage cheese when the child is 10 months old. The child can start having ordinary milk at meals when they are one year old.
Offer foods according to your child’s hunger. The baby will know the right amount. Portion sizes and the number of meals will gradually increase. At 1 year of age, the child will eat a varied diet with the family at 5 meals a day using utensils or their fingers, with the help of an adult if needed.
Include the baby in your family mealtimes. Provide them with suitable food in the form of purees or finger foods. You can also give your baby a spoon to practise putting food in their mouth. The child will choose themself what and how much to eat. Let the child examine the food with all of their senses.
You can offer water with the meal to a baby who drinks breast milk. If your child is on formula, you can also offer it as the meal beverage.
As the baby grows, you can increase the coarseness of pureed food. Instead of pureeing, you can chop and mince the food with a fork, for example, or serve a larger portion of the food as finger food.
Eating problems
Eating difficulties are fairly common among young children. Most eating problems will ease with age. Remember that gagging, coughing, retching and refusing food are normal for babies.
If your baby is repeatedly cranky during mealtimes or unable to calm down for the meal, there can be many underlying reasons.
- Does your baby have enough energy for eating? Could you rearrange your daily rhythm so that the baby will have more energy during mealtimes?
- Is the mealtime atmosphere relaxed? If messiness, the baby’s gagging or their refusal to eat have made you or your partner upset before, think about how you could improve the baby’s experience of mealtimes.
- Is your baby afraid of certain foods? Let them experiment and choose their own food. Babies have sensitive senses, and they smell and taste things intensely. Eating with fingers could make it easier for a sensitive baby to explore new flavours at their own pace and on their own terms.
If your family has concerns about your baby’s eating or growth, bring them up at the maternity and child health clinic. Eating problems can be caused by a variety of factors.
Depending on the situation, your maternity and child health clinic nurse may suggest the help of a professional such as a maternity and child health clinic physician, a psychologist, a nutritionist, an occupational therapist or a speech therapist.
